2020 TCA Day on the Hill

Join your fellow counselors for a Day on the Hill. You'll have the opportunity to meet with state legislators and tell them about issues important to their constituents' mental health and wellbeing. Meet with your legislators, attend committee hearings, and engage with policymakers about policies that impact the social, emotional, and mental health of Tennesseans.

The TCA Public Policy Committee and UT Knoxville CSI Chapter will schedule appointments with your legislators for you. All you need to do is:

Register by 2/7/20 in order for us to schedule your appointment. You'll get an email with your appointment time and location. Look up your legislators, their voting records, issues that are important to them that you can connect on to prepare for the meeting.

Attend the event & follow the schedule. You'll be well prepared to speak to lawmakers about the work of counselors as their constituents and how our work impacts the citizens of Tennessee.

Our legislators rely on us to tell them about the issues that are important to our ability to engage in the practice and work of counseling. Regardless of what setting you work in, the laws of Tennessee impact how and what counseling you do. We have a civic and a professional duty to get involved in the legislative process

The most important thing you will do is share your story. You, the voter, is who your legislator is on Capitol Hill to represent. Our legislators take that responsibility seriously. They want to hear from you, in your own words. They want to hear how laws, or proposed bills, impact your ability to have a viable career, what your experience of trying to help clients and students get the services they need, your experiences as a counseling recipient. You serve as an expert witness on both the practice of counseling and the experience of the counseling consumer. Join us to share your story with our lawmakers.

This is a donation to a 501(c)6 and is tax deductible as a business expense but not as a charitable donation.

Advocacy

Our profession is impacted at local, state and federal levels. We represent the voice of Tennessee counselors at each of those levels. Stay up to date with how you can affect public policy. Just like the rest of our work, it all starts with the relationship. Get to know your elected officials. Download the GoVoteTN app to find out who your elected officials are, who is on upcoming ballots and voter information. Your officials represent you. Make sure you let them know what you think, what you care about.

Local Initiatives

School Boards

City Councils

State Initiatives

Find My Representative

Department of Education

Upcoming Legislation

Board of Licensed Professional Counselors

Federal Initiatives

Medicare Coverage for LPCs & LMFTs

School Counselors & ESSA

Tricare Reimbursement

National Initiatives

LPC License Portability

ASCA National Standards

Coaching Standardization

Ways to Effectively Affect Public Policy

1. It starts with a relationship.

Get to know your officials. They can only represent you if they know you and what you stand for. Call them, visit them while they are at home in their districts, attend their functions and invite them to your functions. A school or facility tour will help them understand the work you do and the environment you work in better.

2. Visit, Call, Email in that order.

When something is up for debate, let your representative know what you think about it. Visits are best, but if you can’t make it in person, a phone call works well, too. Emails are much less effective but better than nothing.

3. Vote.

Make sure that you are actively engaged in selecting our representatives. Make sure your representatives know that you are actively engaged. It matters that they see you as someone who is informed and is active.

4. Be Polite.

When we passionately disagree with people, it can be easy to forget to be polite. In fact, in the current political climate, being polite is often viewed negatively. That does not change the fact that we are counselors and we value the dignity of all humans and we should behave accordingly – even when we passionately disagree.

One Counselor’s Story of Advocacy: SB341/HB720

Our very own, Tracy Cagle, a retired school counselor in Knox County, was tired of not being able to help her students get the additional mental health care they needed. As a school counselor, she would hear from teachers and see first hand a student struggling in ways that were not related to special education needs, but serious. Because of prior lawsuits resulting in referrals from school staff requiring schools to pay for mental health care, many districts do not allow school counselors to refer to mental health providers unless it is educationally significant. Tracy knew we could do better than that for our students. School counselors serve an important role in the continuum of mental health and emotional wellbeing. By seeing risk factors and early emergence of emotional suffering, they can facilitate the proper care and help prevent the emergence of serious mental and behavioral health conditions.

With this in mind, Tracy worked with Senator Frank Nicely (R-Claiborne, Grainger, Hancock, Hawkins, Jefferson, and Union Counties), Representative Antonio Parkinson (D-part of Shelby Co.) and our TCA Lobbyist, Chris Ford, to craft bi-partisan legislation that allows for proper referrals to mental health services without disrupting educational and other services in place in schools.

TCA is proud to have members like Tracy who take a proactive approach of promoting counseling in Tennessee!